No wonder Wall Street is talking up the trend lines for offshore drilling even as interest in North American land falters. The offshore industry as a whole has seen a sharp 2011 uptick in contracts and that’s now reflected also in working rigs, bringing the industry close to the magical 80% utilization level that often coincides with rising rates.

Mobile offshore drilling units came in with 644 out of 811 units under contract for a 79.4% utilization rate in the week ending September 30, according to ODS-Petrodata.

While the news is good globally, it varies by region. Seas are still a little rough in the Gulf of Mexico, where utilization moved up modestly to 52.6% with one more rig added to contract.

Elsewhere around the globe, ODS-Petrodata reports the European/Mediterranean Sea market exhibited flert utilizaton of 87.9% with 112 contracted rigs out of 116 available.

Next hottest market? No pun intended based on location, but it remains the Middle East with regional fleet utilization of 84.9%, according to ODS-Petrodata, followed by the Asian Australian utilization of 82.2% on the basis of 120 out of 146 mobile offshore drilling units under contract.

Activity in other markets, according to ODS-Petrodata include Latin America, which remains at 80.5% utilization, virtually unchanged for the week, and West Africa where fleet utilization decreased to 77.5% based on 55 of 71 rigs under contract.

Offshore